Citigroup credit card info hacked; Social marketing rivals email benefits

June 9th, 2011

CitiGroup Inc. says that hackers have breached its security and accessed the credit card information of North American card holders. The company said the security leak affects about 200,000 customers.

The cybercrooks broke into the firm’s Account Online service and viewed customer names, account numbers and contact information.
They apparently did not gain access to social security numbers, birth dates and card expiration dates and security codes.

Citi said it is contacting affected customers and taking measures to ensure the security hole is patched. The Financial Times first reported the security breach.

The breach follows weeks of news about the successful cyber attacks on Sony’s PlayStation Network, which affected more than 100 million online accounts. Nevertheless, I’m glad I never took Citi up on the credit card offers it bombards me with in the mail.

What we would like to know, is when large companies entrusted with sensitive customer information are going to be proactive about security. Fixing breaches after cyber crooks break in is not the way to instill trust. A company as large and technologically proficient as Sony, for instance, can surely afford to make security a priority instead of an afterthought, and that most definitely goes for banks.

Social marketing rivals email effectiveness for small businesses

Social marketing efforts rival the effectiveness of email in some marketing campaigns by small and medium sized businesses, according to a report from Pitney Bowes.

For one, the Pitney Bowes survey shows that many SMBs (54 percent) like social media marketing because it is cost-effective, while more than half also choose it because it is easy to use. They felt the same way about email, which actually led by about 10 percent in the responses, but email marketing has not up to now had a rival so close in those categories.

Where social media lagged in the opinion of many SMBs was “proven effectiveness,” where direct mail and advertising led.

Those mobile apps may expose your data to hackers

Computer firm viaForensics says that many top apps fro Android and iPhone devices can expose customer data to hackers.

It looked at popular apps to connect to LinkedIn, Netflix, and Foursquare and found they stored names and passwords in unencrypted plain text, which the Wall Street Journal notes in reporting the story, “Violates commonly accepted best practice in computer security.”

As the WSJ notes, “You would think that the spate of Internet security breaches would have companies on their toes.”

Instead, apparently, many still make the most basic security mistakes. They’re simply asking for trouble. And if hackers exploit these security holes before they’re fixed, it could derail much of the rapid success mobile apps are enjoying now. When will they learn?

Here’s the HuffPost report on the mobile app security risk.

– Allan Maurer
To contact TJS editor Allan Maurer: Allan at TechJournalSouth dot com.

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